1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the present invention relate to measuring flow rate of a fluid.
2. Background Art
Flow rate of a fluid such as a liquid or a gas is measurable through the use of a flowmeter. Several types of conventional flowmeters are known in the art. A first conventional flowmeter includes a piston meter which is used for domestic water measurement. The piston flowmeter operates through a piston regularly rotating within a chamber of known volume. For each rotation, a certain amount of water passes through the piston chamber. Another conventional mechanical flowmeter includes a turbine flow meter. In operation, a turbine wheel is generally set at a constant speed within a fluid. Seals are often required to maintain the integrity of components that are in direct contact with the movement of fluid. As such, it has been a concern in how best to reduce maintenance costs associated with the use of a turbine flowmeter. Yet another conventional mechanical flowmeter includes a thermal mass flowmeter. The thermal mass flowmeter uses combinations of heated elements and temperature sensors to measure flow rate of a fluid. While providing a flow readout, the thermal flowmeter often needs to be calibrated at least with regard to the heat capacity of the fluid, thermal sensors, and other related structural elements.
Conventional flowmeters have met with limited use when a fluid to be measured is one having at least one state property such as viscosity or density that is either low in content or changing over time. By way of example, the turbine flowmeters rely on a constant or known fluid viscosity and density for calibration. As such, the turbine flowmeters are rendered lack of value for measuring flow rate of fluids with changing state properties. Other conventional flowmeters such as the piston type flowmeters substantially dependent on the use of moving seal while moving seals are known to possess low reliability and cause unwanted operational interruptions. Further, differential temperature techniques depend on a known fluid composition and often becomes less suitable when the composition of a measured fluid changes during operation.